"Actor: Kathleen Byron"

• The Professionals - Season 1 | DVD | (10/06/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  An instant hit in 1977, The Professionals was a fast-moving and occasionally sharp-shooting action series about a couple of cool dudes in a fictional secret service organisation, CI5. The creation of Avengers veterans Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell it was often gritty stuff, leavened by the mildly subversive attitudes of Bodie (Lewis Collins) and Doyle (Martin Shaw) who ultimately are always loyal to their gruff boss George Cowley (Gordon Jackson). Helped by witty, if rampantly sexist, dialogue and trousers of sterility defying tightness, Bodie and Doyle enjoyed a good run as 1970s sex symbols. Jackson’s often exasperated Cowley kept them in line with just the right degree of Puritanical steel. The first series set the standard for five successful years, milking the dramatic potential of a rich gamut of scenarios, from international espionage to racism and religious evangelism; Bodie and Doyle usually being called upon to protect a controversial figure from the assassin's bullet. Shaw would later dismiss The Professionals for its stereotypical violence and for a long time refused to allow reruns. In fact, as cult television goes, it has weathered well. Many of its themes are as relevant today as they were then. The constantly elliptical script ("I want you to see that he's… well taken care of") is tremendous fun. And despite the macho drive, the whole thing has a camp archness which betrays its Avengers pedigree. Great for a nostalgic wallow. On the DVD: The Professionals on disc still displays the slightly ropey quality of late 1970s television film complete with brassy soundtrack. Presented in 4:3 format, the original production values disconcertingly recreate the original post-homework viewing experience. But the DVD extras are the thing here. Interactive menus allow you to drill down into the history of each of the 14 episodes, cross-referencing guest stars. And there's an appropriately camp fashion note.--Piers Ford

• The Professionals - Vol. 1 | DVD | (26/09/2005) from £24.98   |  Saving you £15.01 (60.09%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Thrown together to join George Cowley's new C15 organisation....Hard men no patience nor time for subtleties. Charged with combating terrorists criminals and corruption wherever they find it. Capable of using any means necessary. The only people they can trust are themselves... Features all 14 episodes from the first series broadcast in 1977 uncut and digitally remastered!

• The Small Back Room | DVD | (31/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Adapted from Nigel Balchin's famous novel about a military bomb disposal expert 'The Small Back Room' traces the struggles of Sammy Rice a crippled neurotic scientist. Sammy plagued by feelings of inferiority because of his lameness labours to solve the problem of a new type enemy bomb that is causing many casualties. When a close friend and collegue is killed attempting to dismantle one of the bombs Sammy is forced to face his demons take his life in his hands and prove his worth; to the military and himself...

• Black Narcissus | DVD | (26/09/2005) from £22.94   |  Saving you £-2.95 (-14.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  When Bernardo Bertolucci went to the Himalayas to film Little Buddha, so the anecdote runs, he was disappointed by the scenery. Somehow, the real thing didn't quite live up to what he'd been led to expect by Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. It's not hard to see why he felt let down. Their film is almost ridiculously gorgeous--a procession of saturated Technicolor, Expressionist angles, theatrical lighting and overwrought design. It has a good claim to being the high watermark of lushness in the British cinema (and, incidentally, every original foot of it was actually shot in Britain). No wonder it took the Oscar for colour cinematography (shot by Jack Cardiff) as well as for art direction and set decoration (created by Alfred Junge).Audiences loved it on its first release, but the critics were cooler: hadn't the story been upstaged by the baroque images? Well, probably, but that's not altogether a bad thing, since the plot--quite faithful to Rumer Godden's popular novel --isn't wholly free of corn. A group of five Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) establish a school and hospital in a former harem among the Himalayan peaks. The wind blows, the drums pound, the Old Gods stir, and one by one the celibate sisters succumb to unchaste thoughts, above all Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron, terrific in the role), so consumed by erotic yearning for the one Englishman in sight (David Farraar) she puts on crimson lipstick, wears her wimple-free tresses like an early Goth and takes a downward turn. (Black Narcissus features the greatest scene involving a nun and a high place this side of Hitchcock's Vertigo and Jacques Rivette's La Religieuse.) Silly, to be sure, but also sublime at times and as curiously entertaining as it is picturesque. --Kevin Jackson

• Emma | DVD | (16/08/2021) from £7.05   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This delightfully fun and lighthearted comedy is based on Jane Austen's classic novel. Dazzling Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare In Love) shines as Emma a mischievous young beauty who sets up her single friends. Funny thing is...she's not very good at it! So when Emma tries to find a man for Harriet (Toni Collette Knives Out) she makes a hilariously tangled mess of everyone's lives. You'll enjoy all the comic confusion... until Emma herself falls in love, finally freeing everyone from her outrageously misguided attempts at matchmaking!